The Boston Bruins needed to win Game 4 at home to keep their first-round series against the Buffalo Sabres competitive. Instead, they came out flat and were absolutely demolished by Buffalo 6-1, falling behind in their best-of-seven series three games to one.
Bruins’ starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman was especially not happy with his team after the poor performance. As he was pulled early in the third period with Boston down 6-0, he made his way onto the bench, where he could be seen screaming something at his teammates.
Swayman allowed six goals on 29 shots before being replaced in net by Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped all six shots he faced.
Postgame, head coach Marco Strum said he appreciated Swayman’s fire and emotion after getting pulled.
“Absolutely,” Sturm said. “At least one guy. It was not his fault today, I can tell you that. That’s why we kept him in there for a while, because he’s a battler, he wants to be in.”
The game started pitifully for the Bruins, who watched Peyton Krebs, Josh Doan, Zach Benson, and Bowen Byram all score in the first 14:24 of the opening period, giving Buffalo a commanding 4-0 lead. Even worse, Boston had managed only two shots on goal of their own during that span.
Throughout the contest, Bruins fans became so frustrated that they began giving mock cheers to Swayman whenever he made a save.
As Beck Malenstyn and Alex Tuch added tallies early in the third to make it 6-0, Swayman lost it and surrendered the net.
Bruins forward Sean Kuraly would score with 40 seconds remaining to end Alex Lyon‘s shutout bid.
“I’m embarrassed,” Sturm said. “We all should be embarrassed.”
According to The Hockey Show’s Ty Anderson, the Bruins are now 3-10 in their last 13 home playoff games dating back to 2023. The stretch is their worst 13-game home playoff segment since a 3-10 run that ran from 1995 to 1999. They are also on their longest home playoff losing streak, five games, since a seven-game skid from 1994 to 1996.
“I think you gotta use both sides of it,” Charlie McAvoy said. “You can’t sit with it because if you carry it into the next game, it’s not going to be any good. But I think we can use it to try to light a fire at the same time. Man to man in here, if we’re not f***ing embarrassed with what just happened, then I don’t know what to say. It’s not over after three games, so we have everything to play for here, and we know we’re a better team than what we did today.”
Boston will now face a near-impossible uphill climb to get back in the series. Just 32 teams in NHL history have come back to win a series trailing 3-1, with the most recent franchise to do so being the Florida Panthers, who did it in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the… Boston Bruins.
